I Forgot Stravinsky was American

Celebrating Stravinsky in 2021 - 50 years since his passing in NYC. 
Published on Medium, June 6, 2020

Some of my thoughts…

Stravinsky became a U.S. citizen in 1945 in Los Angeles and he lived in the US longer than anywhere else in his life. To me it’s amazing to think of this great Russian composer as actually an American one. I am scheduled to conduct two of the great ballet scores in concert next season, The Firebird and Petruchka, yet I find myself especially interested in his long American period. So in the middle of this pandemic I am developing a few programs around some of his American works to celebrate this anniversary.

Stravinsky first met Aaron Copland in Paris in the 1920s, as he often sat in on Nadia Boulanger’s classes when Copland was becoming one of her most prized students. I find Copland’s music nicely effected by Stravinsky, rhythmically certainly but also harmonically, as well as both featuring clear and transparent styles. There is so much to explore from Stravinsky’s American period. His opera The Rake’s Progress and oratorio The Symphony of Psalms being two of the favorites, I am also fascinated and have loved performing his Dumbarton Oaks and Danses Concertantes, two works that harken to his neoclassical period. Here is a program I have entitled The American Stravinsky for a Beethoven sized orchestra of 35–45 musicians, juxtaposing works of Copland and American works of Stravinsky. It’s also possible to perform with twenty players or less, utilizing our evolving social distancing guidelines.

The American Stravinsky
Copland, Quiet City
Copland, Music for the Theatre
Stravinsky, Concerto in E flat (Dumbarton Oaks)
Copland, Appalachian Spring for 13 instruments
Stravinsky, Danses Concertantes
Encore: Arioso, from Concerto in D for Strings

What I like about this program is that Copland’s music offers warmth and space for the rhythmic excitement and complexity of Stravinsky’s music. Recently I conducted Copland’s El Salon Mexico with the Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz in Mannheim, it was fascinating to conduct this work for the first time. Copland creates these moments of interludes that are free, harkening to Debussy, reminiscent of Milhaud’s Creation of the World and other works. Warm and pastoral yet sophisticated in color and harmony.

- Stravinsky to Copland, Copland to John Adams -

One thing I always find thrilling are the moments when one can clearly recognize the connections. It is the look forward that Stravinsky, then Copland paint for composers like John Adams. They each feature this amazing, horizontal rhythmic music, creating this long line. Tricky stuff to perform, exacting, clean, amazingly modern and American. I see many examples of Stravinsky informing Copland and both Stravinsky and Copland informing Adams. Copland’s 3rd Symphony the great monument of American music, especially the 2nd movement with all of its horizontal, effervescent, optimistic lines. Mr. Adams studied this well and one can hear the connections in many of his works. Short Ride in a Fast Machine, the Nixon in China works, even the Violin Concerto. It’s not that he stole anything from his predecessors, it’s that he ran with what he was given and pushed the boundaries. One generation informs the next!

Thanks for reading, Garrett